TEESSIDE bride Kylie O’Brien rejected Rolls Royces to fulfil a lifelong dream - a traditional stroll to the church on her big day.

And the 23-year-old, accompanied by her parents, bridesmaids and flowergirl, walked through her home town of Norton to wed childhood sweetheart Paul McTiernan yesterday.

“I’ve been offered cars. My dad offered to get me a Rolls Royce and my fiance’s mum said ‘what about a limousine’ but I didn’t really want any of that,” said Kylie, who has just finished a degree in childhood and curriculum studies at Sunderland University.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do.”

“My mum lives a couple of minutes from the church and I just thought it would be nice for people to see.

“People say it’s tradition, getting a car, but this goes back to before cars.”

Friends and well-wishers, including staff at Simply Drinks on the High Street where Kylie used to work, turned out to watch her take the five-minute stroll from mum Sheila’s house to St Mary’s Church.

Drenched in sun, Kylie, who has a four-year-old son, Harvie, may have looked picture perfect as she paraded past Norton Green - but some people couldn’t quite get their head round her childhood dream.

“When I’ve said to people I’m walking, a few people took the view ‘we can help you out with a car’ - but it’s not about that. On the other hand, some people have said it’s really quirky.”

However, Kylie, who is about to start an early years professional course so she can work with kids, said hubby Paul, 24, loved the plan.

“He thought it was great. That’s why we get on so well - we’re both on the same wavelength.”

The couple met when they were 15. Both have had a child through previous relationships - Paul, a mortgage consultant, is dad to four-year-old Sophie - before getting back together two years ago.

Kylie added: “We went out for a while then we both went our separate ways. We bumped into each other again after he’d had a daughter and I’d had a son.

“I said to a friend who knew him ‘I’d like to meet him again’. It was back on again but this time it was for real.”